The Pyrotechnic Imagination

Arthur Lubow has a nice piece on Cai Guo-Qiang in the Sunday NYTimes Magazine.

For those that don't know, my blogger avatar is from Cai's piece Inopportune: Stage One when it was at MassMOCA.

Cai Guo-Qiang: Master of explosions

Artkrush a nice brief interview with Cai Guo-Qiang, famous for his fireworks art, and for those in NYC, the "rainbow to queens" and the attempted "Circle" in Central Park. There's a nice litte explaination of his installation at Mass MoCA this winter, from which my profile photo came:

CGQ: The illusion I wanted to create is related to this theme that in modern society, anything can happen at any time. The Inopportune exhibition at MASS MoCA includes Stage One and Stage Two. In Stage One, nine cars appear to be exploding in the gallery space, with neon lights coming out from the car and creating color flashes. Then visitors encounter a video installation of a car exploding, which may look like a suicide bombing, but the spectacular explosion also makes it look like fireworks. Stage Two comes last, which includes nine very true-to-life tiger sculptures that struggle and move with thousands of arrows on their bodies, making these animals seem brave as they fight the pain the arrows inflict on them.